Second Take: Over the Bar (OTB)
Posted by mike | Filed under Beer, Reviews
Some of you may remember my first trip to Over the Bar (OTB). I liked the experience, but have always felt like it wasn’t a very representative trip. I had gone out on a Sunday afternoon after working on projects around the house all morning. As you might expect, the restaurant was nearly empty at that point. I also branched out from my usual salad. I have long suspected that OTB would probably dish out some quality greens, and a second trip would let me test that theory.
OTB Bicycle Cafe
www.otbbicyclecafe.com
2518 Carson Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15203
(412) 381-3698
For the second visit, I invited “the community;” this was the third outing of the FoodBurgh Meetup—my little experiment in reader participation. For the OTB trip, about 8 people made their way, and I’d say it went pretty well. The diversity of the group made for some interesting conversation, and one discussion even inspired another outing, to Las Velas (in Market Square).
If you don’t remember, OTB is a South Side bar with a definite bicycle theme. The interior artwork includes colorful murals, and dangling old-time bicycles (and bicycle parts). They serve a “relatively small” number of draft beer options, but take care to focus on some more worthwhile options than just macro-brews. For the veg heads in the crowd, the menu also does a pretty good job of offering up vegetarian version of several meals (thanks to seitan and tofu substitutes). For the more carnivorous crowd, I’m told they serve up a pretty good burger. (more)
Done with star ratings
Posted by mike | Filed under Meta
The number one source of frustration on this site: star ratings. No matter what I do, they’re bound to disappoint someone. If I give a high rating to every place I get excited about (most of them), then I get feedback that my ratings are uninformative. If I stick to ratings of no more than 3.5 for really good places that don’t necessary stand above the crowd, then everyone associated with that place is a little disappointed (and rightfully so).
So Long Star Ratings!
At the end of the day, every place is a little different. There are high points and low points, and condensing a very complex emotion that I have for a particular place into a single metric just isn’t workable. Sure, I could use a multi-variate scoring system, but that’s just complex and burdensome. I write this blog to call attention to restaurants than I want to promote, and a numeric scoring system doesn’t let me do that any more effectively.
If you want to know how I feel, read the review. If your pressed for time, then skip to the last paragraph or two, where I tend to summarize my thoughts. Even that is bound to give you a better perspective of how I feel than a single score.
Review: Birmingham Bridge Tavern
Posted by mike | Filed under Beer, Reviews
I go to to the South Side frequently—more now than ever, that I’m scheduling meetup outings along side my restaurant review blog. Think about it: Pittsburgh’s South Side lines up far too well with two familiar FoodBurgh themes: good food and good beer—all rolled into one. At first glance, the whole area appears to leave healthy eating in the dust, but I’ve actually found that you can do pretty well if you pay attention.
Last week, various meetups gave me two chances to strike south of the Monongahela, starting with a Beer Meetup at the Birmingham Bridge Tavern. The took me to OTB (a FoodBurgh Meetup), but that will have to wait for another post.
Birmingham Bridge Tavern
www.barsmart.com/bbt
2901 Sarah St
Pittsburgh, PA 15203
(412) 381-2739
Unless you’ve gone looking for it, you may not have ever noticed the BBT. It’s tucked away on Sarah St, East of even the Hot Metal Bridge. Questions of why they called it the Birmingham Bridge Tavern come to mind, but I’ll let that one go. If you ever do drive down that section of Sarah St, you’ll probably notice the lights—they stand out in a part of the South Side that’s otherwise residential and, well, dark. One benefit of being tucked in a far corner: I actually found a parking space within a block of the door. (more)
Review: Beer Nutz
Posted by mike | Filed under Beer, Reviews
It’s about time for some FoodBurgh cleanup: going way back in my stack of review score sheets, I have notes for a place called Beer Nutz. I really don’t like the name, but one of the owners emailed me a while back to suggest I might check them out. I’m always on the look out for a great place to grab a beer, so it seemed worth a try. Back in early January, I rounded up the troops and headed out with a group of friends on a Saturday night.
Beer Nutz Bottle Shop
beernutzplaza.org (broken link!)
1335 Freeport Rd.
Pittsburgh, PA 15238
(412) 963-6882
As a place to grab a beer (or buy a case at the adjoining distributor), Beer Nutz does a pretty good job. With different sets of coolers and some un-chilled shelving, they have a lot of beer options. That’s not to say they outdo either D’s or Bocktown, but there’s little chance you won’t find something worth enjoying—unless you’re that one friend that doesn’t like beer at all (we’ll call her #5 in my group).
Situated way out in Aspinwall, they aren’t anywhere close to local for me, but if you’re out that way, it’s a solid place for a beer. Sadly, that didn’t seem to be the case relative to food: I and multiple others at the table were somewhat disappointed by our meals. (more)
Review: Blue Grotto Pizza
Posted by mike | Filed under Reviews
Months ago, a friend of mine at work was raving about a Pizza Place in the South Side: Giotto’s. A quick Urbanspoon search for the place turned up nothing. Unwilling to give up, I kept on digging until I finally figured out that the place had changed its name—to Blue Grotto Pizza. Fast forward to mid-January, and I dragged a friend of mine out there to give it a try.
Blue Grotto Pizza
www.bluegrottopizza.com
1610 E. Carson St.
Pittsburgh, PA 15203
(412) 904-3277
Blue Grotto is what I would call a “high end pizza parlor.” The place isn’t exactly a full service restaurant, but it is the kind of place that is sufficiently comfortable to justify eating in. According to Munch, the restaurant was opened by the Girasole family (of Girasole restaurant fame, of course). Based on a conversation with one of the employees, they seem to have gone through a couple of different names: starting with Giotto’s (a reference to the artist and his circle) and eventually landing on Blue Grotto. Somewhere in the middle, they lost their pizza chef and original owner: Gino Girasole. Despite that setback, Blue Grotto continues—and I was still reasonably impressed by the food. (more)
Review: Franklin Inn
Posted by mike | Filed under Reviews
I have a pair of friends that I happened to meet through other friends. We all have those, right? Well, the “source” friends are currently out of the country—volunteering for a good cause, but the follow-on friends are still in Pittsburgh. In fact, they joined me in heading out to a restaurant I had only recently found out about. On Saturday, we made our way out to Franklin Inn up in the North Hills.
For those of you that aren’t completely lost in the layers of friends, I’ll give the follow-on friends names: Kate and Brad. Brad is a fellow computer geek professional that works in an office building the street from my own. Kate is one of my two photographer friends, so she volunteered to do all the photo work for my post. If you like what you see or happen to be seeking a photographer for a special event, go ahead and seek her out over at Captivating Imagery. The lighting at Franklin Inn was less than condusive to quality photography, and she still managed to pull of some good shots—without a flash, no less.
Now on to that review…
Special Note: This and all photos for this post from a professional photographer (and friend): Kate Miller of Captivating Imagery
Franklin Inn Mexican Restaurant
www.franklininn.net
2313 Rochester Rd
Pittsburgh, PA 15237
(412) 366-4140
Franklin Inn is way up in the North Hills—somewhere along Rochester Road between I-79 and Route 19. It’s not really near anything else—largely in the middle of a largely residential area. According to the restaurant’s web site, it was founded by the Cibula family in 1978 and is currently owned and operated by the original owners’ children. Here’s the funny part: you won’t find even a hint of Mexican blood in the Cibula family tree—though they have traveled to Mexico in efforts to refine their craft.
According to various sources, the restaurant was founded as the “Franklin Inn” in 1978. During the first few years, the Cibula’s found some success in Mexican-themed nights. By 1980, the restaurant had been converted to an almost entirely Mexican theme—with the pesky exception of a decidedly American name (and Logo). The “Franklin” here refers to good ol’ Benjamin of US history fame. (more)
Introducing the FoodBurgh Meetup
Posted by mike | Filed under Community, Meta
As some of you may have noticed in my Avenue B review, I have started an official FoodBurgh Meetup group. For anyone not familiar with Meetup, it’s an easy way for anyone to organize a group outing for people with a common interest. For example, you’ve probably heard me talk about the Pittsburgh Beer Meetup in a couple of posts. That’s a different Meetup group dedicated to beer enthusiasts in the ‘Burgh. Every other week or so, the group heads out to a different restaurant or bar that has sufficiently interesting beer options to warrant the trip. The FoodBurgh meetup will be somewhat similar—except the focus is on local dining more so than beer.
I see two possible use cases for the FoodBurgh Meetup.
- An opportunity to revisit some of my FoodBurgh favorites
- An excuse to try out completely new destinations
I suspect most of my meetups will lean more toward (1), but I leave (2) open as a possibility. In fact, the first (pre-announcement) outing of the FoodBurgh Meetup was to a completely new place: Avenue B. As you can see form my write-up, heading out with a group gave me a chance to see far more menu items than I could have possible ordered alone.
That outing included mostly friends of mine that I had roped into the outing. Now that I’m actively promoting the group, I’m hoping that some of my readers will be inspired to come out and give it a try. I view the outings as an excellent way to meet people with a common culinary interest.
If a Meetup group sounds like a good idea to you, why not stop by the Meetup page and join the group. If your not a member of Meetup, it’s free and easy to sign-up. Some groups are better than others, but I’m a big fan of the overall operation.
Review: Avenue B
Posted by mike | Filed under Reviews
For whatever reason, Avenue B has been high on my list of culinary destinations from the time I first heard of the place. Judging from the number of other foodies that have suggested the place, I’d say I’m not alone. Really, all I needed was a good excuse to make my way over there. Lacking such an excuse, I made my own: the first outing of the FoodBurgh Meetup. I had actually considered starting such a meetup for a little while, and this was just as good an excuse as any to get one started.
Avenue B ($$$)
www.avenueb-pgh.com
5501 Centre Ave
Pittsburgh, PA 15232
(412) 683-3663
From what I’ve read, Avenue B aims to be a casual establishment with up-scale cuisine. If you’ve ever read me grumbling about “stuffy” restaurants that try to hard, you have a pretty good idea of how well that placement suits my tastes. Founded by Chris Bonfili, the former executive chef from the Red Room, Avenue B does a pretty good job of hitting that target—though with an up-scale price point. (more)
FoodBurgh popping up everywhere
Posted by mike | Filed under Meta
Whoa. Talk about a big day for FoodBurgh promotion. Not only did the Pop City blogger article go out today, but my first article outside the confines of FoodBurgh went up on the Living Pittsburgh site. Big thanks to both Pop City and Living Pittsburgh for all the pointers back to FoodBurgh. All the Twitter shout-outs and retweets were appreciated as well.
It’s always nice to get some attention for FoodBurgh outside Urbanspoon, my friends, and my regular readers. I also think it’s good practice to point back at some ‘Burgh bloggers not finding their way into the article.
Who did Pop City miss?
Especially if your finding this page via a link, check those guys out.
One more thing, the photo of me was taken at 61C Cafe in Squirrel Hill, which is by far one of my favorite places to write up a review. Big thanks to the 61C baristas for letting Pop City do an impromptu photo shoot inside their cafe.
Review: Palomino (Downtown)
Posted by mike | Filed under Reviews
Over the weekend, I made my way downtown to celebrate a friends birthday. The heart of the city is largely uncharted territory in my world. When I go, I rarely have any idea what to expect, and this visit was no exception. Prior to being invited out, I had never even heard of Palomino. Going in with just about zero information, I can’t say I was all that thrilled. Don’t get me wrong, the food was good, and I had a good time–it just wasn’t really worth the price.
Palomino
www.palomino.com
444 Liberty Ave
Pittsburgh, PA 15222
(412) 642-7711
Turns out, Palomino is a chain—according to the Post Gazette, they’re based out of Seattle. Really, my biggest problem with chains is lack of variety, so in this case the fact that Palomino is operated by a larger organization doesn’t really both me. It’s new to me, and I don’t exactly see Palomino’s popping up everywhere. To me, that means it’s at least worth a try; I just want to make sure everyone is aware of it’s status: this isn’t exactly a local/independent business. (more)
